Patient-Centered Attitudes and Communication Skills in Medical Students after Clerkship.
- Author:
Chang Jin CHOI
1
;
Jung Min KIM
;
Yong Gyu PARK
Author Information
1. Department of Family Medicine, Department of Statistics, Korea. fmchcj@catholic.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Patient-centered;
Communication skill;
Attitude;
Medical education;
Evaluation
- MeSH:
Compliance;
Curriculum;
Education;
Education, Medical;
Empathy;
Humans;
Learning;
Patient Satisfaction;
Students, Medical*;
Surveys and Questionnaires
- From:Korean Journal of Medical Education
2004;16(2):169-177
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: Patient-centered communication is known to improve patient satisfaction, compliance, doctor-patient relationship, and health outcomes. The aim of this study is to evaluate medical students patient-centered communication skills and attitudes in medical students after their clerkship. METHODS: To evaluate medical students' communication skills, OSCE was performed on 114 fourth-year medical students who had completed their clerkship. After OSCE, we used structured questionnaires to survey the subjects in assessing attitudes toward communication skill learning and patient-centeredness. RESULTS: The accomplished frequency of patient-centered communication items were as follows: allow patient's narrative thread (88.6%), open-to-closed-ended questions (47.4%), discuss psychosocial and emotional factors (36.0%), elicit patient's concerns and perspectives (36.0%), discuss how health problem affects patient's daily life (21.9%), express empathy (14.0%), negotiate plan of action with patient (68.4%), and ask whether patient has further issues to discuss (33.3%). The students who did medical service as extracurricular activity and were confident with their communication skills performed better patient-centered interviews. There was no significant relationship between medical students' patient-centered attitudes and patientcentered OSCE scores. CONCLUSION: Having completed their clerkship, medical students were still unable to perform a good patient-centered interview. Current medical curriculum should teach medical students how to communicate in a patient-centered manner. The education method should focus on behavior change initiative.
